Sharper Image

If you found out your girlfriend was a female impersonator would you still kiss and hold hands?

Probably not, because although "she" would still be the same your perception of "her" would be radically altered.

That, in my opinion is why Sharper Image is in chapter 11.

Fifty dollar stainless steel nose hair trimmers with LCD light no longer confer status when they can be bought for $7.95 at widgetsRus.com. When your neighbor has one in his medicine cabinet, when you find one at a garage sale for $2.00, your perception of what constitutes a high status personal hygiene appliance is radically altered.

The lesson is that mass produced products are generally speaking a poor place to seek status. That is what one of a kind artworks are for. And art need not be expensive. The Image of being "Sharper" is about (or should be)a refined sense of aesthetics, of connoisseurship and charity. And if the art is something you made, if you are the arteest - even better.